Amitabh Bachchan takes pride in Aishwarya's French honour

The actress was given the Order of Arts and Letters' medal by the French government at a ceremony last night coinciding with her birthday.

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Amitabh Bachchan is one proud father-in-law after his 'bahu' Aishwarya Rai has been conferred with the second highest civilian French honour.

The actress was given the Order of Arts and Letters' medal by the French government at a ceremony last night coinciding with her birthday.

"Aishwarya celebrates her birthday and also a recognition by the French Government.. they confer on her the medal of honour for arts and letters, their second biggest award.

"Many years ago the French had decorated me with the Legion d'Honor their highest medal and now the family prides itself with having two of the family gaining recognition from the French," Big B wrote on his blog.

In 2003, the 70-year-old megastar was conferred with the Honorary Citizenship of the French town of Deauville. He also has honorary doctorates from the De Montfort University in Leicester, UK, the University Brandan Foster by the Leeds Metropolitan University in Yorkshire, UK, and the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia.

"There have been many other recognitions that have been conferred on family members and each time it happens, a sense of pride and joy fills us all. Our own National Padma Awards have been won by several members and the figure I believe is 5... other countries too have been most generous to us - USA, Russia, Morocco, Afghanistan, Egypt, Kenya, Canada, UK, South Africa, Poland... in some way or the other.

"There is a sense of great pride that runs within us whenever there is achievement, though I must admit that there is an equal sense of humility in all these gratifying moments," he added.